Understanding Culture, Society and Politics – UCSP (Group 5)

The Mass Media and Society

 Violence, Consumerism and Mass Media - Today, it is not an exaggeration to say that the younger
generations are shaped more by the mass media more than their genes. In effect, people have often
blamed the mass media for shaping the violent behavior of children. Violent behaviors are also
commonly associated with watching movies and television.
Violence – the use of physical force to harm someone and/or to damage a property.

Consumerism – the belief and actions of people that it is good to spend a lot of money on goods and services.

 Mass Media and Youth Culture - In the review of literature done by Lanuza (2003), regarding the
mediatization of the Filipino youth, he observes that “mass media exhibits ambivalent character in
relation to the formation of youth culture”. Hence, studies on youths and values promoted by television
would show the propagation of traditional Filipino values such as respect for elders, family solidarity,
and reverence for authorities.” Mass media also impact on the way young people spend their leisure. In
the same review of Lanuza, it is shown that young Filipinos prefer to go to malls than in parks and
museums. Moreover, many young Filipinos prefer to play online games than engage in traditional
physical sports and games.
Mediatization – Specifically, the action or process whereby the mass media comes to control or affect something.

 Mass Media and Gender Stereotypes - Another pervasive influence of mass media is the acquisition of
stereotypes. Stereotypes enable each member of society to deal properly about certain individuals and
provide them with the right script on how to act properly in a certain social situation. Mass media is a
powerful tool in disseminating stereotypes especially about women.
Stereotypes – are images that can be adopted about specific types of individuals, groups or certain ways of doing
things. These thoughts or beliefs may or may not accurately reflect reality.

 Mass Media as a Tool for Propaganda - The mass media is also a powerful tool in disseminating certain
political ideas. Mass media can also be used to strengthen national interests. The media also acts as an
agent of stability, charged with the task of helping preserve social and political order. This function is
commonly associated with the term development of journalism. But mass media generally has the
function of maintaining the status quo by controlling the information that goes to the audience. This
mass media influence on the audience is well elaborated in the Chomsky and Herman Model of
Propaganda.
Propaganda – are ideas or statements that are often false or exaggerated and that are spread in order to help a cause,
a political leader, a government, etc.

The propaganda model is a conceptual model in

political economy advanced by Edward S.
Herman and Noam Chomsky to explain how
propaganda and systemic biases function in
mass media.
 Mass Media and the Society of Spectacle - In an age of society as spectacle, a term coined by Guy Debord,
spectacle or media images dominate politics in modern societies. The media are complicit in the
generation of spectacle politics, redefining politics as battle for image, display, and story in the forms for
entertainment and drama.
Society of Spectacle – are images that the mass media generates through the large advertising companies.

 Mediatization of Social Life - The images or spectacles (from the Society of Spectacle of Guy Debord) in
turn, form a life of their own that pre-defines and determines the way people look at the world and
interact with other people. McDonald’s is thus, a cultural ambassador of Americanization and global
capitalism, promoting the commodity spectacle and its consumer culture throughout the world. Some
sociologists even contend that its process, business outsourcing, and standardization have become the
rule for making things efficient. This is called McDonaldization. The term was popularized by the
American sociologist, George Ritzer.
 The Rise of Knowledge - It is accepted by most social scientists that we now live in a fast-changing
“runaway world” where the economic, social, cultural, and political foundations of societies are being
redefined on a continual basis, and communication media are a central feature of this globalization
process. The new age of internet-based mass media ushers in the so-called information societ or
knowledge society. Unlike the traditional or modern societies, the people in information societies rely
more and more on the use and access to information rather than machines and human labor.
 Cyberdemocracy and Globalization of Mass Media - The scope and power of mass media today is further
extended by the development of ICT. Today, ICTs include emails, networks, mobile phones, internet,
worldwide web and etc. The global reach of these new technologies have become very vast.
 Mobile Cellular Cellphones – Almost 7 billion in 2014 (96%)
 Internet – 3 billion people (40%)
The promise of internet is that it will give a voice back to the people, one that has been taken away by private
media and entertainment.

Cyberdemocracy - The democracy that is the “mainstreaming of diversity, communication and cooperation approach,”
that is, the idea of rights, freedom and collective intelligence in open and/or virtual spaces.

Globalization - the process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start
operating on an international scale.

 Cyberdemocracy or Digital Divide? - According to Jodi Dean, the expansion and intensification of
communication and entertainment networks yield not democracy but something else entirely:
communicative capitalism. The age of internet does not merely pose a threat to the process of discussing
diverse and opposing opinions, it also creates new inequalities. This inequalities created by the access
and use of CITs are called digital divide. Digital divide is, therefore a symptom of a much larger and more
complex problem – the problem of persistent poverty and inequality.
Communicative Capitalism – this allows for the proliferation of divergent opinions and political positions in
cyberspace.

Digital Divide - is an economic and social inequality with regard to access to, use of, or impact of information and
communication technologies.